We have had the most beautiful and warm end of summer, early fall this year. Today, finally we are having rain which has been needed. I feel like it is getting me in the mood for Vancouver, where I will be going soon to take part in a 4 day painting workshop.

I haven't taken a workshop in a couple of years, and am really looking forward to this one coming up. The instructor is Alvaro Castagnet, a Uraguayan painter. It will be in watercolour, and, weather permitting, we are going to be painting outdoors too, around Granville Island. This looks like it will be great fun and a great way to get back to painting in watercolour.

This summer, very little in the way of painting was done. It turned out to be one of those where there was a lot of demand on my time because of things that needed doing to the house - lots of things needed fixing, replacing, painting etc. Now those are pretty well complete and with autumn definitely here, I start to look forward to painting more steadily.

To start with, I am now a new member of one of Saskatoon's long standing painting groups, the Artists' Workshop. I am in the process of setting up a web site for the group, so check back from time to time as I get information and photos added from the other members of the group. The group has met a couple of times so far and I realized how out of practice with watercolours I am. So this workshop will get me back into the swing again.

Also, our Escape Artists' group has begun the planning for our Third Annual 'Art by the Hearth' show in December (the 10th and 11th). Suddenly, that is only two months away. Deadlines are motivating though.

And then in November I am going to take part in a multimedia workshop being put on by the University through its Community Arts program. Miranda Jones is doing 2 consecutive weekends and will be doing collage and working with gold leaf, something I have been wanting to find out about for some time.

So now is the time for turning slowly away from summer, enjoying whatever autumn we get, and looking forward to settling in for the winter months and hopefully painting, painting, painting.

This is the card table. I have been printing up the cards I will have at our upcoming Prairie River Artists' show in about 3 weeks time. I have a lovely new printer (a Canon MX870) which is doing a great job. I like to get this done ahead of time as I like to add a 'chop' of my name to the back and because it is a kind of oil paint, it takes a couple of days to dry. You can see it below. I like it because part of my name has water lilies in it, one of my favourite flowers which I get to enjoy when I go visit Vancouver. It came in its own little silk covered box. The ink is also in its own box. A lovely little set.

I got the chop several years ago from a man who would make them on the spot, at the Lonsdale Quay market. I don't know if he is still there; the Quay is a great place to visit if you are in Vancouver. You take the Sea Bus across from Vancouver. Then you can walk around the lower Lonsdale area too - there's an Opus there for art supplies.

Then, yesterday I received my new set of Moo cards. This time I got the larger business card size. They are printed on recycled paper and are really nice. Last time I got the smaller mini cards, which I also like very much, but thought I'd try the standard sized cards for a change. If you come by the show, please pick one up.

Now I am just waiting for the order of little clear bags that the cards will go into. It is quite a process, but I enjoy doing it. I hope you like them too! See you soon.

Winter always seems like such an endurance test. Then February finally arrives and even though it is only a matter of a couple of days, it seems that much shorter, and passes more quickly. When March hits, even though it is still very much winter here, and will be for weeks yet, the brighter and longer days are more energizing, and I seem to get much more accomplished.

Now, the first show of the year is in just over 2 weeks, and then our big group show is in about 4 weeks. Zoom! I have done another few small paintings, and a still life with an orange, a sugar shaker and a small copper pot. I haven't got to any beach paintings after all, and given the time, it may just not happen until these shows are done.

When I was at the grocery store yesterday I found a blood orange. I think they are called Moro oranges now - maybe people don't like the gory reference, but I rather like the original name. I think I will do a small one of the intact orange which has an orange and red peel, and then one of some slices that are backlit to show off their great colour. I also have an avocado. Love those colourful fruits and veg!

This year, at our group show, we are going to have people painting so that the visitors can see how we do it. I hope that they find it interesting to see how we actually create the works. Well, back to it!

Now that March is just a day away (will the sun come out tomorrow?), I am sure that time will seem to pick up speed as it always does this time of year. Gardenscape is only 25 days away, to be followed by our annual Prairie River Artists' show a couple of weeks after that.

I have been focussing on floral pieces for Gardenscape. I am not sure if I will get any more done, as I would like to do a landscape piece next, or more likely a seascape/harbour piece. After months of gazing upon the backyard full of snow I am looking at my photos from the coast, and thinking about the ocean and beaches.

Also, Redberry Art is now being hosted on a new server, and the migration over the weekend seems to have gone smoothly. A couple of images need fixing, but that is minor. Thanks to my wizard(s) behind the scenes who makes everything up front look good.

So, off to make a decision about the next painting, thinking of mild ocean breezes, instead of the blizzard that is whizzing by the window today.

After painting a few floral pieces that I want to put into the upcoming Gardenscape show, I decided that I wanted a change. I had some nice big raspberries and blackberries on hand, and a sunny afternoon, so decided to set up a still life. I like to do reflections so picked a couple of small pieces and used them. Yesterday afternoon was our art group, so I started to work on it.

This is on a linen panel (from Raymar). I put a thin wash of terra rosa over the canvas first. I like using the colour best so far. I have tried burnt sienna, ochre and a warm gray on various things, but seem to come back to this colour to tone the canvas. I have tried just the white of the canvas as well, but really prefer a warm under colour like this. It just seems to add a certain depth that I like.

Anyway, this is still pretty rough, as you can tell. I sketch the subject with vine charcoal, primarly just an outline of the shapes. Then I start to block in the colours as I see them within the shapes. I use a little walnut oil with alkyd and mix with the oil paint as I use it. This will help dry this first layer more quickly. Once I have the basic shapes in, I go back over refining with the pure oil paint.

It is often around this point though, that I will get up to take a break, walk away, and come back and suddenly see that the coloured blocks are turning into the subject I'm painting. It still gets to me. Such an amazing process. That's the magic!

I don't paint in heavy layers, doing more glazing, that is, thin layers of paint. This probably comes about because I began painting in watercolour, and it is the process I learned first. I find this particularly so for small pieces like this one. When I have done a couple of larger scale pieces, then it is bigger swaths and more paint which is fun. However, I think I have to wait until I can open the windows in spring as the paint, even though the new ones don't have nasty solvents in them, still has a bit of a smell that can bother me a bit and I don't want to become sensitizied. I don't use any organic solvents at all, just the walnut oil with the alkyd (straight alkyd is too smelly for me). I wash my brushes in Murphy's Oil Soap, even ones that have sat around for a few days (buy it at Safeway).

So tomorrow I'll continue on with this piece and see where it goes. Fun stuff!

Thank you to everyone who came by our Escape Artists' show this past weekend. Saturday was a bit snowy, but it didn't stop most people, and by Sunday, we had some sunshine, which really showed off all the great art works. You can see some on Escape Artists' flickr site. We had lots of positive comments, and we got to enjoy mulled cider and goodies while we talked to our visitors each day.

Having the show in a home is really quite enjoyable. Many people commented on how it was easy to see how a piece of art would look in their home.

Now looking forward to the holidays, getting together with family and friends. I have one little painting I want to try and get done by the end of the month, and plan to start on it on Saturday at our regular Prairie River group meeting.

Well, I have a few more of the paintings to hang back up on the walls. It is a good opportunity to rearrange the paintings that I have as well.

Today is an odds and ends day, varnishing the little canvases that will go into the Gardenscape art show on Thursday, fixing the photos that will be going into the calendars I am making for the Prairie Rivers Artists' show next month, ordering my favourite Gamvar varnish from Opus (hadn't realized I was almost out! and will need more soon), and making a donation to the Saskatchewan Craft Council for the memorial fund for my friend, Gale Steck,  who died earlier this year. I also have to get my paintings together for Thursday and make the labels.

March and April are always busy months since I became involved in painting, and with Prairie River Artists, as April is annual show time. It is both an end and a beginning - an end to the winter, and a chance to show what I've been working on over the past few months, and the beginning of the outdoor season. Gardening begins in earnest at the end of April, and brings all the wonderful flowers that make such great subject matter. Also, a time to get out and travel.

Plein aire painting, that is painting outside on location is not something I have done much of. When I was in France, we did paint out along the lanes and fields and that was great fun. I just haven't done it here at all. So that may be something new to try too this summer. I have some new materials to experiment with as well. I have recently bought both oil sticks (Sennelier) and watercolour sticks (Daniel Smith). I haven't had the chance to do anything with them yet, so I hope that I can really get some playtime in with them soon.

So the changeover to spring brings ends and beginnings. Even the tulips are starting to poke out of the ground.

Now that we are well into March, the sun is higher in the sky, the snow is starting to melt, and thoughts turn to spring. For me, spring means art shows, particularly ones in which I will be participating. 

In about two weeks, the first one will be here, which is the art show at Gardenscape, March 26-28. This is such a fun weekend, both because I get to volunteer planting the demonstration gardens during the days prior to the show, and I participate in the art show as well. I have been working on some new paintings for the show, and have put up a few of the small ones that I have completed on the Gallery of New Works page.

Then, in about five weeks, we will be having our 8th annual Prairie River Artists' group show, April 17 and 18.  I am in the process of making new calendars for this show. I made some for our Escape Artists' show last fall and was very pleased with them so I am going to make new ones for 2011 to have at this show. Once I have the calendars printed, I will put up some photos of them.

I hope that the weather will be delightful, not frightful, for both shows. It has been both in the past as this time of year is very much transitional and unpredictable. I am really looking forward to seeing everybody as we emerge again from winter into spring!

I have been working on a large painting of one of my succulents. I must find out the name of it one of these days. I am planning to use it for our Escape Artist show at the Muttart Conservatory in Edmonton this summer. It has been great fun to work on such a large scale (30 x 30 inches), much bigger than anything I've worked on before. I am looking forward to doing some more of these larger paintings.

For the Muttart show, we need larger works as the space is quite large and little ones would just disappear. I am hoping to go to Edmonton in March and will definitely go by the Conservatory and check out the space. I haven't been there is years, so it will be interesting to see what it is like again.

I am going to do a second painting for the show as well, but haven't quite decided what I will do yet. It will be somewhat smaller, and maybe floral. We need to keep to a 'nature' type theme in keeping with the Conservatory.

You can see the work in progress, which I think I am going to call 'Sun Seeker' on my flickr site, under 'Works in Progress'.

I really do enjoy painting succulents. They have such great colour and structure. I will be doing some more soon.

Now that this one is almost done - time to sit in what I call the contemplation stage - I am going to start on some small pieces for Gardenscape that is coming up at the end of March (see Upcoming Events on the side). I also like doing the little 4 x 4 inch pieces too. They are quick and I learn lots from doing them. So now to go and prime a group of little canvases.